The group met up in Calgary on 8th September before starting our trip into the Rockies. The first day took us into the south of the area, visiting Barrier Lake, Porcupine Creek and Wedge Pond before reaching the Highwood Pass at 2206 metres above sea level.
Our first overnight stop was in Canmore, a lovely town just a short distance from the entrance to Banff National Park.
Sunrise at Two Jack Lake was wet and raining before the clouds began to disperse.
Soon the conditions were much more conducive to photography.
Before gorgeous light was working its magic above Lake Minniewanka.
After a late breakfast we visited the River Bow overlooking Banff
..........and the iconic Banff Springs Hotel
The rain soon returned causing us to retire back to the city of Banff for some retail therapy.
Aspens are a familiar sight in the area.
The incredible colour of the water is caused by the glacial flour, fine deposits in suspension that cause the light to be diffracted differently through the water.
The height you view the water has a bearing on the strength of the colour.
This area around Moraine Lake is also known as ‘the Valley of the Ten Peaks’
The strong colours in the earlier images were seen from the rock pile on the right of this image.
As keen photographers we’d been keeping a close check on weather conditions.
We were staying for two nights at the Inn. We decided to concentrate on the moraine field in front of the glacier, giving large views............
......and some on a smaller scale.
The ever shifting clouds around the mountain summits.............
.......provided plenty of opportunities for different photographs...........
........with beautiful light............
.......highlighting the rock faces..............
.............before heavy clouds started rolling down the glacier towards us.
Our final destination would be Jasper, but first we had what was billed as a ‘waterfalls’ day.
We finally reached Jasper in the late afternoon to be faced by the first traffic jam of the trip, caused by ............
Our first full day in Jasper was taken up visiting the seemingly innapropriately named Maligne Lake.
The following day we had a mix of locations including Maligne Canyon, and Miette Hot Springs.
One of the saddest things we’d seen was the impact of the pine beetle on the conifers that cover much of the area. Unfortunately, no solution has yet been found to their impact and large areas of woodland are irretrievably damaged.
On reaching the cable car station the area above was snow covered and icy.
Some of the group headed up to the summit......
While the rest of us looked down on Jasper and it’s surroundings.
Our final stop and overnight hotel was at the aptly named Paradise Lake.
After travelling north for almost two weeks, we retraced our steps on the final day of travelling back to Calgary. Even before leaving the hotel we stopped for our first photo shoot of the day.
We had a fantastic time during the two weeks, taking in stunning scenery throughout the trip, but the thing that really made it were the other people on the trip.
Credits:
Photography by Graham Colling